25th March 2012

On this cold and very foggy morning Steve and I met  with over 260 riders to take part in the Richardson’s Rumble.

There were 2 courses to choose from, 67 miles or 105 miles so we opted for the latter. Unfortunately the start was delayed for over an hour, waiting for conditions to improve.

We left St Ives about 09:00 in still quite dense fog, headed out through Warboys, Woodwalton and Sawtry. It wasn’t until we reached Elton that we could see the countryside around us and by the time we passed through Wansford we were in glorious sunshine.

Our first feed station was in Stamford where we were able to take on food and take off a layer of clothes.We left Stamford suitably refreshed and on the road to Ketton but we both knew that the toughest part of the ride was just ahead of us.

As we skirted around the south of Rutland water, the scenery was spectacular and as we approached Manton we knew that the spikes were just a couple of miles away.

And yes, we were suitably impressed with the hills around Seaton, Harringworth and Gretton not to mention the ‘Pièce de résistance’, Rockingham hill.

Our second feed station was in Corby and after a quick drink we set off to Deene then back in the familiar territory of Southwick, Oundle, Winwick, Alconbury Weston and finally finishing back in St Ives.

We completed the 105 miles in 5 hours 56 minutes; the officials told me that the last rider crossed the finishing line at 18:30 (now that’s a long day!!).

Mark Colmer

(Next stop ‘Tour of Flanders’)